The Jewish-American gymnast, who performed her gold-medal winning floor exercise routine to ‘Hava Nagila’ at the 2012 London Olympics, will compete in the 19th Maccabiah Games this July.
Cue “Hava Nagila,” Aly Raisman is coming to Israel.
The Jewish-American gymnast, who performed her gold-medal winning floor exercise routine to the tune of that traditional folk song at the 2012 London Olympics, will compete in the 19th Maccabiah Games this July, organizers announced Monday at a news conference at the Maccabiah Village in Ramat Gan.
Maccabiah chairman Amir Pered said that Raisman will be honored during the opening ceremony, which will take place on July 18 at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.
“We are very happy that an athlete like Aly Raisman, who is at the top of her game, will be coming to take part,” Pered said. He noted that she will be joined by her famously anxious parents.
Raisman’s triumph in the floor exercise at the London Olympics helped the U.S. women’s gymnastics team clinch their first Olympic gold medal since 1996. She also claimed an individual bronze in balance beam.
But it was her song choice and comments about the massacre of Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympics in Munich that endeared her to Jews around the world.
The 2012 games marked the 40th anniversary of the massacre, in which 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered by Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September. The International Olympic Committee decided not to hold a moment of silence for the victims during the Games’ opening ceremony, over protests by Israel and other countries. Raisman weighed in on the controversy after her floor exercise victory.
“If there had been a moment’s silence, I would have supported it and respected it,” the 18-year-old native of Needham, Massachusetts was quoted as saying.
